


Did You Really Mean It?

by TheFamilyWeChoose118



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 3x17 minor spoilers, 3x18 spoilers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Eddie Diaz, Double Date, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, Light Angst, M/M, No Abby hate here, Pansexual Evan "Buck" Buckley, buddie, canon compliant to 3x17, idiots to lovers, train crash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24019024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFamilyWeChoose118/pseuds/TheFamilyWeChoose118
Summary: When Buck saw Abby at the site of the train crash the 118 had been called to, he didn’t know what to expect. He definitely didn’t expect it to end in a date with Eddie Diaz.
Relationships: Abby Clark/Original Character(s), Evan “Buck” Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 337





	Did You Really Mean It?

When Buck saw Abby at the site of the train crash the 118 was had been called to, he didn’t know what to expect. He definitely didn’t expect it to end in a date with Eddie Diaz.

Buck knew a conversation with Abby would be coming in the days following the train accident and, while there was no hope of recovering their relationship, he at least wanted to hear her end of the story as to why she never returned his messages and eventually ghosted him altogether. So, it came as no surprise to him when she came walking into the fire station that morning as they were closing in on the last few hours of their shift. 

As Buck was shutting his locker, a shadow between the trucks caught his eye. He pocketed the phone charger he had pulled from his locker and made his way toward the woman who had emerged from between the trucks. “Hey, Abby,” Buck waved. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey!” she went in for a friendly half-hug that Buck returned. “I just wanted to stop by and say thank you to the team. I don’t know what would have happened to me or my fiance if you guys hadn’t been so brave.”

“It was no problem. Just doing my job,” 

“I really can’t thank you guys enough,” she insists.

Buck looked down and smiled, looking back up at the woman in front of him. “I’m really happy for you Abby.”

She blushed, looking away for a moment and back at Buck. “Thanks. I’m really happy for you too.”

At that, Buck gave her a questioning look. “I don’t—”

“That firefighter you were working with? Your partner? Eddie I think was his name? He was great. You and him make a really good team.”

“Yeah, Eddie.” Buck pauses. “He is pretty great,” Buck whispered, blushing and praying Eddie couldn’t overhear the conversation, not that he didn’t think Eddie was great. Eddie was amazing. He was a great dad and works hard for what he has. How could Buck think anything different?

“So anyway,” Abby broke the silence that had overtaken them. “I wanted to invite you and Eddie to dinner with me and my fiance so we can catch up. It’ll be our treat, of course. A double date that ideally won’t end in an emergency tracheotomy.” Abby gave a breathy laugh.

Buck chuckled and before he could protest, Eddie had walked up next to Buck, shaking Abby’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Abby.” She dropped her hand back to her side as Eddie introduced himself. “We would love to take you up on that offer,” he smiles.

Buck stands there, unable to process the interaction that is happening right in front of his eyes.

“Great! How does tonight around seven sound? We’ll set up the reservation and send you the details?”

Eddie looks to Buck. “Is seven okay, Evan? It’ll give us time after our shift to catch up on some sleep and then we can get ready and meet them at the restaurant.”

Buck nods, his throat too dry to speak. “Sounds great,” he rasps, feigning a smile as Eddie exchanges numbers with Abby so he knows where they are meeting up. 

With that, Abby says, “Okay, I’ll see you guys at seven.” She gives a small wave and nods as she turns around and walks out of the fire station. Buck’s eyes follow Abby as she walks out of the garage bay and round the corner, moving out of sight.

Eddie turns to Buck. “You might want to close your mouth before you start drooling everywhere.” 

Bobby breaks Buck out of his stupor when he calls over the railing for everyone to come sit down to breakfast and Eddie begins moving toward the stair.

Buck snaps his jaw shut, turning abruptly to follow Eddie. “Eddie, wait. Eddie.”

Eddie turns, his foot on the first step. “Meet at my house at 6:30. I’ll get Carla to watch Christopher and we can ride over to the restaurant together in the truck.” He looks Buck up and down. “Wear something nice,” he smirks. He starts back up the steps but is stopped when Buck grabs his wrist.

“Wait, Eddie. I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about. We’ll talk about it after work? For now, let’s go eat. It smells amazing in here” He nods up to the kitchen area where everyone except them is seated for breakfast. 

Buck nods and follows him up the stairs, taking the seat next to Eddie, mentioning nothing of the date he had just agreed to.

…

Buck parks his jeep on the street, across from Eddie’s house. His hands are shaking and he’s willing whatever gods are listening right now to strike him down where he sits in the parking spot. He gets out, smoothing out any wrinkles in the straight-cut black slacks and light blue button-down shirt he had finally decided on. 

The plan had been for him to go home and catch up on some sleep after the particularly grueling shift they had. After Abby had left the fire station and they had finished eating, the calls hadn’t stopped until their shift had finally ended. Instead, he went home and went through his closet, picking out multiple outfits before finally calling Maddie, who told him to go with the blue button-down because it made his eyes pop. 

“Now or never,” he mutters as he makes his final push to move away from the jeep and make his way to Eddie’s door, nervously rolling up his sleeves to feel just a little more comfortable. If he had to admit, he thought he looked pretty good. Maybe they could pull this off.

Buck knocks on the door twice before it swings open, Eddie is standing there in a half-buttoned shirt revealing his chest, finishing getting ready. If Buck’s eyes wandered past Eddie’s face, no one had to know. “Hey, man. Come on in. Sorry, I’m running late.” Buck moved in the door, shutting it behind himself. “Christopher insisted I help him with some of his homework, and I couldn’t say no. Carla just left a little bit ago to take him to dinner and a movie.” 

Eddie switched to fastening the buttons on his sleeve and the words were coming out of Buck’s mouth before he could stop them. “We don’t have to do this, you know.” Buck internally rolled his eyes. So much for confidence.

Eddie eyed him as he buttoned his other sleeve. “I mean, I can call and cancel. It’s not like it would be worse than what she did to me two years ago.” Buck smiled sadly, trying to relieve some of the tension he felt in the room.

“I’ve already put on my nice clothes and sent my child out for the night. We are doing this, and it’ll be the most convincing fake date you’ve ever been on.”

“The only fake date,” Buck corrected. “I don’t make it a habit to accidentally tell my ex-girlfriends that I’m dating my coworker.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” Eddie jests as he pockets his phone and wallet. “You ready to go? The restaurant isn’t too far from here. I’ll drive.” He grabs his keys off the table by the couch and they make their way out the door and into the truck.

After nearly five minutes of what Buck could only describe as a tense silence, he speaks up again. “I was serious about what I said, you know. If this will make you uncomfortable, I can call and cancel. I’ve probably still got her number in my phone.”

“First of all, you should really delete that.” Eddie flashes a smile at Buck as the tension melts from Buck’s shoulders. “And second, I said I’m doing this, so I’m going. At the very least, I get a good time and a free meal. What’s not to like about that?”

“What if I told you hypothetically that I’m pan and that’s the reason Abby so easily assumed we’re together? Would you still want to do this?” Buck looked to Eddie nervously to gauge his reaction.

Eddie pulls into a parking place beside the restaurant, shutting off the car and turning to Buck. 

“Whether we’re talking in hypotheticals or not, which I assume we aren’t, I would still want to do this. This will be fun.” He smiles at Buck, turning serious for a moment. “Thank you for telling me, though. I imagine these weren’t the circumstances you had planned on telling me under.”

Buck shrugged. “It’s not really something I keep secret, but it also isn’t anything I just go around shouting from the rooftops. Hen and Maddie know. I think Chimney knows, but he’s never said anything. It’s not easy to just slip it into a conversation.”

“I know what you mean.” Eddie nods, reaching for the door handle to get out. “After all, I can never figure out how to slip it into conversations that I’m bi.” 

With the revelation, he moves out of the truck, leaving Buck sitting with his jaw dropped, unable to form words, for the second time that day. Resting his elbow on the console, he puts his head in his hand. “This man is going to be the death of me,” he mutters.

Eddie moves around the truck and opens Buck’s door, offering him a hand as he gets out. “Come on babe. We don’t want to be late.” Eddie intertwines their fingers and locks the truck pocketing his keys. If Buck blushes at the name, it’s between him and the gods who refused to strike him down.

Inside the restaurant, Abby waves them over to the table. “I’m so happy you guys could make it!” Her and her fiance stand. “David, this is Evan and Eddie,” she gestures to each of them. 

“You can call me Buck,” he nods.

“Buck, Eddie, this is my fiance, David,” Abby introduces. David shakes their hands.

“Pleasure to meet you guys.” He smiles.

“Likewise,” Buck returns with a tight smile as they move to sit down. 

They pick up their menus as Eddie looks to David. “So, Abby, I heard you had traveled around Europe. What was your favorite place to visit?”

She smiles, obviously thinking back through her trip. “I really loved Ireland. My mom always wanted to visit there but never made the trip. It felt like a part of her was there with me as I was exploring the countryside.” She smiles fondly. “I also really loved Morocco. Getting to experience the culture and meet the locals was nice. It’s actually where David and I met.” She takes David’s hand in hers, smiling at the memories. “We were both backpacking our way around the Mediterranean when we met, and we ended up joining up and finishing out our trip together. And here we are.” She smiles again. 

The waiter comes over to take their order. Buck orders for him and Eddie as Eddie hands the menus to the waiter, Buck shifting his gaze to a confused Eddie and Abby. “We order take-out from here a lot,” Buck says sheepishly, causing Eddie to reel from the number of times Buck has been to his house and ordered dinner for them. He knows his order.

“So how did you guys meet?” Abby breaks the silence that had settled on the table.

Buck decides to take the question, sparing a glance over at Eddie. “We actually met on the job. It was Eddie’s first day with 118.” Buck smiles.

“So you’re also a firefighter?” David asks.

Eddie nods. “We actually met you at the train crash. We both responded and helped with the rescue.”

“That’s right,” David recalls. “Some of it is still spotty from where I hit my head in the accident.”

“That’s to be expected,” Eddie remarks.

Abby shifts the conversation back. “So how did you guys get together?”

Eddie gives a breathy chuckle. “Actually it was after the tsunami. I have a son—Christopher—and he and Buck were at the pier when the tsunami hit.” Eddie reaches to his side to take Buck’s hand in his. “Buck did everything he could to save Christopher, even though he was on blood thinners and almost killed himself looking for him.” Eddie gives a sad smile. “I knew at that moment that he was such an ingrained part of my family. I think I had known before, but I just hadn’t realized it.” Eddie can feel Buck’s eyes on him.

The waiter sets their food down and refills their drinks.

“How long before?” Abby asks, a knowing smile on her face. 

“Probably since the earthquake, when Buck got to meet Christopher for the first time.” Eddie looks over to Buck now. “He took me to the school after our shift had ended. We had cleared out a collapsing high-rise hotel, and I needed to pick up my son.”

Eddie shifts his gaze back to Abby and David. “Christopher has CP. A lot of people don’t take the time to get to know him before they judge him. He was so good with Christopher, asking him about his favorite cartoons and having a genuine conversation with him. Nobody had ever done that and stuck around after the conversation was over.”

Before Buck can stop himself, he blurts out, “I love you.” 

Before he can kick himself for that slip, Eddie looks to Buck. “I love you too, Evan.” he smiles, leaning over and leaving a soft peck on Buck’s lips. 

Eddie turns to go back to talking to Abby and David, something about how old Christopher is, but Buck can’t hear anything. He sits there dumbfounded. Eddie said it back. Eddie said it back.

Buck feels a squeeze of his hand that pulls him from his thoughts. “You okay, Evan.” Eddie shoots a worried look to Buck. 

He feels himself come back to reality, eyelashes fluttering a bit as a smile spreads on his face. “Yeah. I’m great.”

They finish out their meal, talking about Abby’s and David’s new jobs. She’s not returning to the call center and they are both working at a local children’s nonprofit. 

David insists on paying before Buck and Eddie can even grab for their wallets, insisting that it is his treat. They finally give in to having the bill covered, eventually going toward the door to head their separate ways. David and Eddie are talking about a rope rescue him and Buck did a few weeks back as Abby pulls Buck to the side. “I’m really happy for you.” She says quietly. “After everything that happened with us, you deserve something good. I’m sorry for how I left things. It was unfair to you.”

“Thanks,” Buck pauses. “All is forgiven between us.”

“Buck, you don’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I do. As you said, I’ve got something good, and I’m happy. You’re happy with David. We can leave what happened between us in the past.” 

Abby smiles, giving Buck one last hug. “Goodbye, Buck.” She shakes Eddie’s hand. “It was nice to meet you, Eddie. You seem really good for Buck.”

Eddie says a timid “thanks” before he nods and they all go their separate ways. Eddie slides his arm around Buck’s waist as they go to the car. 

…

The drive back to Eddie’s house is the longest and tensest fifteen minutes of Buck’s life. When they finally pull into his driveway, Eddie looks over to Buck carefully. “Do you want to come in for a beer? Christopher won’t be home for at least another hour.” 

Buck nods his head and they both head inside. 

Eddie steps into his room to set down his wallet and keys as Buck moves to the kitchen and opens two beers, sliding one to Eddie as he enters the kitchen. 

Buck takes a long drink before looking at Eddie. “You’re a really good actor, you know.” 

Eddie lets out a nervous chuckle. “You too, man. If I were Abby, you would’ve had me convinced tonight.” 

They both nurse their beers in silence, both of their thoughts obviously clawing at them before Buck finally shifts his gaze up to Eddie. “Eds, I think we need to talk.” He speaks so quietly that it would easily be missed if one of the men were any further apart. 

Eddie meets Buck’s gaze and nods. 

Buck attempts to tread lightly, trying not to scare off Eddie. “Did you really mean everything you said tonight about me meeting Christopher and you knowing when I had become a part of your family?”

Eddie chances a small smile, moving his gaze away from Buck and to the floor. “Yeah," he whispers. "Did you mean what you said at dinner?”

Buck sets his beer down and begins moving from where he is standing on the other side of the kitchen, closing the space between him and Eddie. “Do you mean the part where I said I loved you?” 

Eddie shakes his head, looking up to meet Buck’s eyes. Buck lets out a heavy breath. “Yeah. I did. Every word of it.”

At that, Eddie’s smile grew. If Buck is being honest, it is probably the happiest Buck had ever seen Eddie. Eddie intertwines his hand with Buck’s as he moves a hand to Buck’s cheek. “I also meant this.” Their lips connect as Buck’s hand moves to squeeze Eddie’s side, the only thing keeping him grounded at the moment. As their lips disconnect, Eddie looks back up to Buck, whose eyes flutter back open. “For the record, I also meant what I said. I love you too, Evan.” A smile breaks out on Buck’s face as he moves to kiss Eddie.

As Christopher comes bursting through the door, going on about the movie he and Carla saw, Buck and Eddie move away from each other. Eddie picks up Christopher and pulls him into a hug as Buck watches fondly before he shifts his attention to Carla. If Carla shot a knowing look to Buck, that was between him, her, and the gods he hoped would delete his request to be struck down.

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell with me about Buddie over on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/the-family-we-choose-118


End file.
